Buffalo Grove bike plan offers 100-plus suggestions

Village given blueprint to improve quality of 50-mile bike path system

March 14, 2014|By Elizabeth Owens-Schiele | Special to the Tribune

Buffalo Grove identifies more than 100 recommendations in its new bike plan. (Village of Buffalo Grove, Handout)

A new bicycle plan for the village of Buffalo Grove contains more than 100 recommendations to fill in gaps, stripe roadways, add signs and improve the overall quality of the village's 50-mile path system.

"We're not trying to put a price tag on all of the improvements the plan talks about," said Bob Pfeil, the village planner, "but we'll use it as a framework for improvements to the bike path and sidewalk systems in the coming years."

The plan was presented to the village board March 10 by consultant Ed Barsotti, the executive director of the League of Illinois Bicyclists, who is expected to be paid $9,970 for his work drafting the plan. The plan provides guidance for creating safer street crossings for bicyclists and pedestrians, completing and improving the village's eight-foot multiuse path and sidewalk network, providing signs at key locations and linking to paths and trails in adjacent communities. No board action is expected on the plan until next month.

Some of the high-priority recommendations include filling in gaps in the bike path along Aptakisic and Buffalo Grove roads; creating on-road bikeways with striping along Checker and Old Checker roads and striping Thompson Boulevard from Weiland to Arlington Heights roads, Bernard Drive from Buffalo Grove Road to Raupp Boulevard and Highland Grove Drive from Pauline Avenue to Thompson Boulevard.

"If you stripe areas where people can bike and park," Barsotti said, "that narrowing of the roadways slows down high-end speeding."

Barsotti presented the plan to 25 bicyclists who attended last month's public meeting, and reaction was positive, he and Pfeil agreed. Many of these bicyclists were also in attendance at the initial public brainstorming session last May where area cyclists identified problem areas along the village's bike paths on maps. Barsotti has been working on the plan ever since.

"We had marching orders looking at different places in town," said Barsotti, who reviewed an estimated 150 segments of roadway as he created a map of his recommendations. "We reviewed various corridors measuring the roads, taking a look at the land use and coming up with recommendations for what would be the best bikeway treatment for that roadway."

Thompson Boulevard improvements were mentioned by many people at the brainstorming meeting, he said, as well as Bernard Drive and Old Checker Road, which became "the meat of the bike plan."

"What's interesting about those roads," he said, "they are the roads people wanted to see bike improvements on but after talking with police department, they were the biggest roads with speeding in town as well."

He said the plan recommendations focus on a win-win solution for not only bicyclists, but motorists and adjacent land owners as well.

"If parts of this plan are implemented," Barsotti said, "Buffalo Grove could see a national designation as a bicycle-friendly community."

Barsotti said he did not include cost estimates for the project because there are so many variables. Instead, he offered suggestions on applying for grants and piggybacking on planned resurfacing projects.

The 2014 village budget allocated $325,000 for annual sidewalk and bike path maintenance this year, Pfeil said. As money becomes available, he said, staff will make recommendations for future improvements based on the plan's recommendations. The village may seek out grants to cover some of the plan's recommendations, but overall, implementation could be a multi-year process.

The 56-page plan is available for public viewing at http://www.vbg.org/DocumentCenter/View/1872